Irresponsible Public Procurement: The Barcelona City Council Contracts Alstom Amid Investigation into Israel for Genocide Against the Palestinian People
Observatori de Drets Humans i empreses a la Mediterrània (ODHE), NOVACT and SUDS denounce that Barcelona City Council is not complying with its own resolutions and commitments in the matter of socially responsible public procurement.
ODHE i SUDS
On January 31, 2024, four days after the UN International Court of Justice adopted Provisional Measures against the State of Israel due to the risk of genocide, and during a full-scale Israeli military operation on Gaza that had already killed over 30,000 Palestinian people, including 15,000 children, the Barcelona City Council awarded a contract to the French multinational Alstom, linked to the city’s TRAM transport system, without a public tender.
Alstom is one of the multinationals included on the United Nations list of companies operating in Israel’s illegal settlements, and therefore, this contract is a serious irregularity. The Barcelona City Council is violating its own resolutions and commitments regarding socially responsible public procurement by contracting a company that violates international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
The entities that initiated the investigation demand that the Barcelona City Council:
- Explain why it did not require Alstom to sign the Responsible Declaration regarding the compliance with human rights and human dignity, which has been in force since 2019.
- Require all contracting companies to sign the Responsible Declaration regarding the compliance with human rights and human dignity, and thus ensure that all city council contracts include the commitment not to operate in occupied territory and not to violate human rights. Additionally, ensure the compliance with this clause by public entities it is part of, such as the ATM.
- Review agreements, cooperation plans, and all other forms of trade and diplomacy with Israel to detect those that contribute directly or indirectly to the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, mitigating impacts on human rights and, when this is not possible, end activities and funding that facilitate the commission of these serious international crimes.
- Develop more efficient tools to ensure that companies that violate the human rights of the Palestinian people are not contracted.
- Formally resolve and communicate the immediate termination of the aforementioned contract with ALSTOM, as well as all contracts with companies like Alstom, which are in the United Nations Database (and confirm in writing to the undersigned the completion and effectiveness of the termination of these contracts).
- Support the creation of the Catalan Center for Business and Human Rights and a more restrictive transposition for companies of the European Directive on corporate due diligence in sustainability matters.